Saturday 23 October 2010 06.16 EDT
First published on Saturday 23 October 2010 06.16 EDT

STOCKHOLM, OCTOBER 22The Swedish Academy today awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize for literature to Jean-Paul Sartre, disregarding a decision by the French writer not to accept the prize. This is the second time in 63 years that the winner for literature has refused to collect his award – and never before has a "possible" winner told the academy in advance that he does not want the prize.

In 1958 the Russian author, Boris Pasternak, after accepting the prize later had to inform the academy that he did not want the award.

In 1925 Bernard Shaw first refused the honour and the money, but later changed his mind and came to Stockholm to receive the prize. This year's prize of about £18,000 will probably go back to the Nobel foundation.

The academy met for two hours this morning to discuss the situation after receiving a letter from Sartre saying that for "personal reasons" he could not accept the award. But the academy stuck to its earlier decision.

The prize was awarded, said the academy, for "his imaginative writing which by reason of its spirit and freedom and striving for truth has exercised a far-reaching influence on our age."

Sartre, aged 59, who was in Paris when he heard the news, confirmed later that he will not come to Stockholm to receive the prize on December 10.

French opinion seems to be divided into two blocks over this refusal by the "Father of existentialism." One defends Sartre and the other expresses sorrow for the loss of prestige.

A very fair lady indeed

NEW YORK, OCTOBER 22Eliza Doolittle who in her triumphal progress from New York to London to Prague to Tokio must have been made into more national stereotypes than any other stage heroine in history, achieved her final Platonic form last night in the heavenly person of Miss Audrey Hepburn. She is as sensitive as a nerve-end to the slighted female whom Higgins and Pickering are handling like litmus paper.

We went out of the theatre reeling against the stupidity of what had always seemed to be Ibsen's fair comment on Shaw: "Shaw? The man who left emotion out of drama." Ibsen, I guess, never knew Audrey Hepburn.Alastair Cooke